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Ethical boundaries?

2015

Hello all,

I am currently in my second year at
university, and am planning to attain my bachelors in child studies. I
am doing practicum at an after school program, and I had a question
about appropriate boundaries with the youth involved in the program once
the program has concluded for the day.

My main mode of transportation is public
transit, and not surprisingly, this is the case for most of the youth
involved in the program. I also live in the same community as the
program, and thus, I live in the same community as a lot of the youth
too. My question is this: is it ethical for me to take transit with the
youth once the program is over? I'm conflicted about how to handle the
situation, if I should utilize the bus but sit away from the youth, to
engage on the bus and sit with them, or lastly, to just wait until I
think they have all gone home.

I want to remain vigilant in establishing
professional boundaries with the youth I work with, and I am unsure if
this is a violation of those boundaries. Any input is welcome, and I
look forward to your replies!

Warm regards,

Keisha DeCoste
...

What a great opportunity to further build
relationships. Get on the bus! They may or may not want to acknowledge
you. They may or may not be on their "best behaviour". They may or may
not....you fill in the blanks. Our work is about doing life with young
people and you may (or may not!) find yourself with riding mates before
you know it.

Deb Fast
...

Hi Keisha,

I totally agree with Deb - get on the bus and be
with them - it is amazing how much you can learn about young people in a
very non-threatening environment where you can just be...

Marlene Kingsmith
…

I agree with Deb and Marlene (brilliant leaders in
our field) – get the heck on the bus! If you are tuned in the youth will
guide you in terms of how to be with them – to engage or not to engage…

If you have offered them an experience of being a
caring adult in your role as a placement CYC – you will be able to
continue to be a caring adult in their world regardless of your
‘official’ role with them.

Exploring and reflecting on the complexity of our
practice is so important Keisha – continue that too.

Kelly Shaw
…

Hello Keisha,

I agree with Deb Fast and Marlene....getting on a
bus to "just be" with youth is a great opportunity to connect.

Delphine
…

I think you need to identify where your boundaries
are and stick to them. getting on the bus is fine, as long as you don’t
have concerns about them knowing where you live, ect. Sit with them, or
near enough that they can talk to you if you want to, just be aware of
personal and professional boundaries. Be aware of your self care and how
it is effecting you emotionally. Its fine to engage, just don’t be over
involved. Also check with policies at work too. Some have a
confidentiality agreement that may prevent you from acknowledging them
first, as a means of ‘outing them’ as having been in whichever program
it is. In theory they may want that information kept private. But if
they come to you first then its void... just check things out and do
only what you’re comfortable with.

Sarah
…

Hi Keisha,

This is a simple yet very profound question...and I
applaud you for taking the time to ask it. My suggestion is the first
question to ask when making a decision that you believe may have ethical
implications would be to look at the Child and Youth Care Code of Ethics
and see if your choice would be a clear violation of the Code. It seems
pretty clear that just getting on public transit would not be such a
violation, in and of itself, so I would then go to see if riding with
the child would break any agency or program policies.

Assuming you feel ok going ahead the first question
I suggest for yourself is for whose primary benefit would you be riding
with the child for? If it primarily is for you to have a travel partner
then obviously it is not a good choice. But, if you feel that it would
be primarily for the child's benefit then it seems to ride with the
child would open up the door to a number of wonderful opportunities to
make connections with this child. Much of quality and effective Child
and Youth Care work is done "in the moment" and riding would be a great
way, as Deb said, to just "live life with a child for a while". You
would also want to feel out whether the child wanted you to ride with
them. Of course, you could just ask them, but maybe better to let them
make the first move to sit by you and to observe their body language and
other non verbal comfort indicators. The child might feel honored you
would want to spend time with them, or view it as an intrusion or
stigmatization, and may not want to risk telling you. You can see it
would be a great opportunity to put many of the CYC skills you have been
learning to work!

I also think that if you choose to ride with them
you should use the experience as a topic for you to discuss in
supervision. You can also learn much about yourself by doing this and
your own feelings about it, etc.

I am sure you will make a thoughtful
choice...hopefully you will write back later and tell us how it played
out!

Frank Delano
_____

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